


Goodbyes

by webslinginstark



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), avengers endgame - Fandom
Genre: Hurt Tony Stark, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-14 13:07:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16913412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/webslinginstark/pseuds/webslinginstark
Summary: **Based on the events of the Avengers: Endgame trailer. Be sure to watch that before reading this!**Tony Stark is running out of time. He's almost reached his end. Theres only one thing left to do.Say his goodbyes.





	Goodbyes

**Author's Note:**

> Like I mentioned make sure you watched the Avengers: Endgame trailer before reading! Im assuming most fans have already seen this and as soon as I watched the trailer I had to write about this. So... Enjoy!
> 
> You might want to get some tissues ready ;)

Silence. It was all Tony heard these past few weeks. There wasn’t another person’s voice to help keep his attention and draw him from his thoughts. Nebula was on the ship, but she kept to herself and didn’t say much. 

 

The ship’s engine cut out about a week ago. They’ve just been drifting ever since. Drifting, through space. 

 

He had to convince himself he wasn’t already dead every time he glanced out the front of the ship. Nothing but blackness and stars filled the sky. 

 

It took him a few days to get used to the fact that he was here. Stuck in space, who knows how far from earth, in the very place his nightmares originated. 

 

The ones Thanos cursed him with. 

 

Now space wasn’t the only thing Thanos cursed him with. 

 

His friends were gone. Everyone on titan disappeared before his eyes. Even Peter. He never said goodbye. He was too in shock, hoping it wasn’t real. That he would wake up out of breath in his condo with Pepper by his side to calm him down.

 

Pepper. 

 

He didn’t even know if she was alive. If any of his friends from Earth were alive. And the guilt of knowing he wasn’t able to prevent it was eating him alive. 

 

It was as if the pain in his stomach from lack of food was the guilt literally eating him alive. 

 

He had to do something. Say his goodbyes. Hope they’re doing fine on Earth. Tell them he’s sorry.

 

* * *

 

He’d been sitting on the metal floor for who knows how long already. Staring at his helmet that was sat in front of him. One tap of a button and a holographic message of him would be recorded and stored in his suits memory.

 

One tap and he’d be saying his final goodbyes to everyone. 

 

He wanted to take a deep breath and calm himself down, but that would be a waste of what precious oxygen he had left. And he had to make it through these messages. 

 

With a shaky hand he leaned forward and pressed the button on the inside of the helmet. 

 

He let out a breath and tapped the front. 

 

“This thing on?” he questioned to himself as a small blue beam off light scanned him up and down, preparing the hologram. 

 

“Hey Ms. Potts,” he started and leaned back against the chair behind him. This was going to be harder than he thought. 

 

“If you find this recording… Don’t feel bad about this. Part of the journey, is the end.” 

 

He leaned his head against the armrest of the chair and glanced out the window. “Just for the record, being adrift in space with zero promise of rescue is more fun than it sounds.” 

 

He closed his eyes and looked back down towards the helmet. “Food and water ran out 4 days ago,” he paused and attempted to collect himself. “Oxygen will run out tomorrow morning,” he finally admitted to himself with a shaky voice. 

 

“That’ll be it.” 

 

It didn’t seem real to him until now. Until he said it out loud. 

 

This is it. Tomorrow he’ll run out of oxygen. He’ll never see his friends again. He’ll never get to see Pepper’s smile again. He’s just going to slowly drift unconscious and never wake up. 

 

“When I drift off.. I will dream about you,” he tapped the helmet in front of him like Pepper was really here.

 

Sighing and dropping his head he whispered, “It’s always been you.” 

 

He quickly reached forward and shut the recording off before he completely lost it. All the times he was ready to sacrifice himself, ready to die so others could live, and this is how he’s going. In the middle of space with no one around to even know.

 

He pressed his palm to his forward and closed his eyes. One message down, 3 more to go. 

 

Reaching forward again, he pressed the same button he pressed just moments ago. The familiar blue light scanned his body and disappeared back into the helmet. 

 

“Hey, Rhodey.” 

 

Silence followed as he thought about what to say next. How does one say goodbye to their best friend since early college years? How does someone say goodbye to someone who helped them get through the rough parts of their lives? 

 

The simple answer is, you don’t. No one should have to go through having to say goodbye to someone who has been by your side since you were a teenager. And here he was, doing just that. 

 

“I’m not good at this,” he paused and chuckled slightly. “I’ve never been good at this actually.” 

 

“I need you to take care of her. You hear me Rhodes? Take care of the woman I love.” 

 

A tear found its way down Tony’s cheek.    
  


“And take care of yourself too. Do it for me.” 

 

Tony reached forward and shut the message off as soon as he could. 

 

He really needed to collect himself for the next one. He didn’t want to cry in front of Steve Rogers. 

 

Wiping the tear off his face he gave in and took a deep breath to calm himself down. 

 

It’s not like this was going to be the first time he’s spoken to steve since the airport in Germany. 2 years ago. 

 

He pressed the button like usual and waited for the blue beam to fade out and he was left sitting there in just the natural light of the stars. 

 

“Steve.” 

 

“I know we’re not on speaking terms, but I hope this is an exception.” 

 

Tony leaned his head back against the armrest and sighed again. 2 years of not speaking to him and now he didn’t know what to say. 

 

“If you find this message, then I need you to do all you can to defeat Thanos and reverse what he did.” 

 

He sat up straight and looked directly at the helmet. “I don’t care what you have to do. Bring everyone home.” 

 

His next sentence got caught in his throat and his eyes began to water. “And when you do it, I need you to find Spider-Man.” 

 

Tony almost laughed at himself for using Spider-Man. 

 

“His name is Peter. Peter Parker… He’s like my kid, Steve.” 

 

The dams in his eyes collapsed and the tears came rushing down his face. 

 

“He turned to dust in my arms, Steve. And I’ll never get to see him again.” 

 

Tony dropped his head to his chest as the realization set over him. He’s going to die tomorrow and he’ll never see Peter again. He’ll never see the closest thing he ever had to a son. 

 

“Find him for me. The next message is for him. He needs to hear it.” 

 

“Please, Steve. I need you to do this. Please.” 

 

Reaching forward Tony shut off the recorder and let himself sob. 

 

The poor kid,  _ his _ poor kid, didn’t deserve to turn to dust on Titan and blame himself for it. He was apologizing as he was dying. He didn’t even do anything wrong. 

 

All this time in the silence of space has given Tony a lot to think about. And knowing why Peter was apologizing to Tony as he was dying, was on top of Tony’s to-do list. 

 

He was apologizing for knowing just what his death would do to Tony mentally. He knew in that short minute that that moment would imprint itself in Tony’s mind and he wouldn’t be able to sleep at night, or function throughout the day without seeing it. 

 

Now it was Tony’s turn to apologize. 

 

He leaned forward and booted up the helmet for the final time. 

 

The soft blue glow illuminated him briefly and faded shortly after. 

 

Tony sat in silence, thinking about what to say. He had so much he wanted to tell the kid, and so little time to do so. 

 

“Hey kid,” he started off. 

 

“If you’re watching this, then that means you’re back. They did it. The rest of the gang managed to bring everyone back.” 

 

Tony forced a smile for Peter. 

 

“It’s going to be okay. I promise. Everything will go back to normal eventually.”

 

“I need you to know a couple things, Pete.” 

 

He sat up took another deep breath before he would most likely break down. 

 

“First of all, you have nothing to be sorry for, okay? You did everything as I asked and I couldn’t be more proud of you for putting up such a brave front and doing so much for everyone at such a young age” 

 

And he paused. Before letting everything out. 

 

“Second of all, I’m sorry.” 

 

“I’m sorry I’m not there with you right now. I’m sorry you had to go through what you did on that planet, you didn’t deserve that. I’m sorry I won’t be there to help you with your homework or with suit upgrades anymore.” 

 

“Most importantly, I’m sorry I never said this sooner. I love you, Peter. You were like a son to me and it breaks my heart that I never told you that. And now… it’s too late.” 

 

Tears were cascading down his face, but he didn’t care. He only cared about telling Peter what needed to be said, even if he was full on sobbing. 

 

“I might be gone, but that doesn’t mean you’re alone, okay? You’ve got the rest of the avengers by your side and they’ll never leave you.” 

 

“I’m sorry, kid,” he repeated again and turned off the recording. 

 

Tony dropped his chin to his chest and let the remaining tears fall. It’s over. All his goodbyes were said. He had nothing left. 

  
  
  



End file.
